


Probed

by statefarm_is_writing



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alien Abduction, Aliens, Angst, Awkward Romance, Bad Ending, Gay Panic, Horror, M/M, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Pining, Science Fiction, Teen Romance, Tragic Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:02:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26743327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/statefarm_is_writing/pseuds/statefarm_is_writing
Summary: Connor, a senior in high school, makes a strange new friend and ends up beyond the stars.
Kudos: 2





	Probed

With fists clenched, Connor glared down at the offending paper. After weeks of reading, studying, and highlighting every worksheet to high heaven, an ‘F’ stared back at him in defiance. 

“Hey, man, it’s not that bad! Maybe you can ask about remediation?” Rox y said, picking at her lunch and watching him with wary eyes. He hated it when she looked at him like that. 

“I just don’t know why I’m so stupid.” The corners of his eyes burned, and panic rose in him. Not here, anywhere but here. Not where they can see. 

“You’re not stupid ; you know that.” She whispered soothingly, placing a hand on  his shoulder. H e knocked it away, storming off as the eyes of everyone around him made his lungs cave in on themselves . It was the third quarter and time was running out fast. No more extra credit was left and finals hovered over him like giant flies over a corpse of failure. He knocked against someone’s backpack, not bothering to apologize as he ran down the hall. No thoughts of where to go or why, he let his feet  run on  autopilot as the acid fear continued to bubble up in his throat.  The computer lab’s door became the golden arches to paradise.

He slammed the door shut behind him, taking in a deep breath and slumping against its frame. The room was dark with sunlight barely reaching through the blinds. In the back corner, a single computer spread bright, cold blue across a young man’s face, who seemed as if he hadn’t noticed the sudden intrusion. Headphones were getting pretty good at shutting out the rest of the world, nowadays.  Glasses resting precariously on the edge of his nose, the blonde glanced at Connor for a fleeting moment before going back to his schoolwork. 

“Sorry, I didn’t know anyone was in here.” He mumbled, set ting  his bag down and t aking a seat across the room.

“It’s fine, I don’t really mind.”  He said.  Connor smiled briefly, though it didn’t reach his eyes, and he laid his head down on the desk. “Rough day?”

“You have no idea , man .” He grimaced and stole a glance at the glowing screen. A map of somewhere called  Cape Pelbrook , West Virginia was dotted with red circles and X’s, next to a note tab with strange notes about nearby forests. Now that he thought about it, wasn’t  Cape Pelbrook a couple of hours from here? It was suddenly hard to focus on his doomed grades , and he stared at the stranger for a moment . “What’re you doing?” He asked.

“ Tracking UFO sightings.” He said nonchalantly. Connor laughed, surprised when  he glared at him. 

“Wait, seriously?”

Weeks later, Connor found himself leaning up against Jay’s bed,  flipping through an old magazine as he rambled on about some moth-person or whatever. He didn’t really understand what he was getting at, but the way he spoke? As if the universe was so much more than just a dark void, spreading his imagination into every dark crevice of the sky? It made all his problems feel small , and a pleasant warmth would fill up his chest . He smiled, nodding along every now and then as Jay explained away every mysterious phenomenon. The quiet melody of his favorite band filled the room, and warm sunlight cast across his face. 

“Hey, can I read your essay?” The blonde’s soft voice broke through his thoughts, “I can’t figure out how to end mine. I suck at conclusions.” Connor nodded and fished through his backpack, pulling out a stack of papers.

“Don’t copy anything, dude.”

“Did you write yours on the probability of Bigfoot?” He asked, genuine concern lacing his words. He laughed, standing up and stretching.

“Yeah, I thought I’d steal your thunder and turn mine in early so Ms. Jackson thinks you cheated off me.” 

“Seriously?!” He cried, and Connor sat next to him on the floor,  handing  him the first page. It read,  _ The Detriment of Social Media on Modern Society _ . Jay frowned. “You’re a jerk.”

“ Eh, you love it . Now, what about that moth-dude? ”

“Mothman.”

“Right.  _ Mothman _ .” He corrected himself with a dramatic flourish of his hand. Jay went on with his rant, explaining all the weird rumors and stories people had made up. It was all ridiculous, sure, but wasn’t it so nice to suspend his disbelief?  Abruptly,  the comfort of  Jay’s voice stopped. Staring at his laptop, his eyes wide with excitement, he typed hastily before grinning and whipping his laptop around to face Connor. A text conversation from an anonymous user ended with a coordinate. He rolled his eyes playfully and sighed.

“Where is it?” He groaned, smirking when he was knocked hard on the shoulder. 

“Cape Pelbrook. Wanna go?”  He asked. “Please?”  He pretended to consider, scratching his head and looking away.  Of course,  he had made up his mind the second he saw that goofy smile.

The scratchy caws of the birds  stabbed at their eardrums as they made their way through the dark brush. Flashlights lighting up the dirt path, Jay clung close to his side and traced his map with his finger.  The sky, covered in dark clouds that filtered cool moonlight through the trees, looked nearly green. They trudged through the wood , falling into a slow but steady pace.  _ Remember _ , Connor thought to himself,  _ aliens aren’t _ _ real _ _ , no freaking way. Wolves are, though. So are bears. Oh god, this isn’t helping. _ Then a twig snapped and he shot up, cursing under his breath. Noticing the pressure, he looked down to see Jay was holding his arm,  wide  eyes fixed on the trees ahead.  Now  his heart pounded as if it were trying to break his ribs , the affection mixing with the adrenaline of fear and becoming a nightmarish cocktail of ‘ _ oh no _ _. _ ’

“We’re almost there, it’s just up ahead.” He whispered, pointing at his map. Connor nodded, giving him an uneasy smile. He tried not to say anything embarrassing.

“Whatever you say, Jaybird.” He failed. Jay laughed, pulling him along into a small clearing. Just as he suspected, a dark pit lay in the middle and he beamed before running down to it, the knees of his jeans sliding in the dirt  as he crouched down to inspect it. A small, cone-shaped object covered in strange symbols lay in the center, smeared with grime. Carefully holding it in his hands, he felt a strange sensation right under his skin.  _ This was it _ , he thought,  _ genuine proof! _ __ Connor leaned over him, confused.

“What is it?” He asked. Before he could answer, a blinding white light poured over them. He watched Jay’s face blur into nothing, a black canvas of skin left behind as his body started to fade away. Trying to scream, he found he couldn’t, and he scratched at his face as the world began to disappear. The last thing he saw was the strange artifact floating up into the light, spinning like a top in the air. 

When he woke up, a rush of cold overtook him. Laying on a metal slab in the middle of a bright room, he turned his head slowly to watch the stars that decorated the sky outside the window. It reminded him of a hospital: too clean and white to be comfortable, yet somehow calming at the same time. His temple throbbed, his limbs already pricking with pins and needles. It hurt to keep his eyes open, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the beautiful window.  _ I’m in space _ _. That’s weird _ , he thought, surprised by his own  tranquility. A sharp pain stabbed at his wrist and he felt his arm go rigid. Unable to move, panic washed over him. 

He u s ed all his strength to fight his own muscles and  look down at his arm. A large tube of flesh and skin folds with beady eyes leaned over  him , pressing a microchip into his wrist with one of its many arms. It was pure white, nearly blending in with the walls. Horror choked him, forcing out a strangled scream. Then there were more creatures, surrounding him and gurgling to each other as one closed the wound on his arm. As soon as it was healed, everything in him relaxed except for the hammering of his heart. He closed his eyes for a moment, praying it was all a dream. It had to be , didn’t it? There was no way. As their strange noises began to fade, he shot up and bolted down the hall, searching for any sign of escape. Instead, he found Jay. 

Pale as a ghost and completely dazed, he was sat on the edge of a similar table, rubbing curiously at his forearm. Connor rushed over to him and held his face in his hands. He stared back at him blankly. 

“Did you see the window?” He mumbled. Connor nodded.

“Yep, c’mon bud, we gotta go.” He dragged him out of the room, catching a glimpse of the creatures at the other end of the hall and shuddering in disgust. “Just stick with me, okay?”  As  the creatures drew nearer, their unseemly bodies dragging across the linoleum floor , he noticed Jay seemed to gravitate towards them, as if escape was futile.  The chrome cone sat at the end of the long hall , and a single choice settled heavily on his shoulders . He turned it over in his mind and  fear push ed him towards  a final decision as the creatures got faster. Turning back one last time, he committed Jay’s soft, sweet voice to memory, then dove for the cone. When the bright light washed over him again, he shoved down his guilt as the creatures closed in on Jay. He found himself in the forest again, drowning in the sudden silence. 

The walk home felt like torture, each step poking at his heart.  What if he had stayed? The forest  was too warm,  overwhelming his senses. He started every time a bird cried. As he finally reached his own doorstep, he took a deep breath and tried to shake away the awful creatures that lingered at the edge of his mind. A bad dream, that’s all this was. He was going to wake up the next morning, sit down next to Roxy, and go about his day as if nothing had ever happened. And if he happened to linger in the computer room a bit longer than he should, well, that was his business. 

Brushing his teeth the next morning , he felt a tiny tap in his arm.


End file.
